Abstract:

A real time method of matching synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images for terminal guidance is presented. Considering the difference of resolution and orientation between reference and sensed images, multiple reference images are prepared. Based on the minimum error probability criterion, edges in each reference image are extracted. Reference templates formed from the edge images are used for real time matching, which contain the area information of the objects on both sides of the edges. A new criterior of similarity measure based on edge information and the statistical characteristic of SAR images is presented. The matching is performed in a series of images depicting the same scene, but in different resolution, i.e., in a resolution pyramid. Using this hierarchical structure reduces the computational load significantly. This method uses both the edge and statistical characteristic information and avoids edges extraction in the sensed image. The experiment result shows that the method is effective for use in synthetic aperture radar terminal guidance.